Tip – Your Next Shot is the Most Important

Your Next Shot is the Most Important

When you’re playing a round of golf, what is your most important shot? The most important shot of the day is the shot you’re getting ready to hit right now. You can’t go back and replay the hole that you made bogey on, and you can’t transport yourself magically into the future to birdie the last hole, but what you can do is take control of the shot you’re getting ready to hit and put all your focus and energy into that shot.

Practice with a Purpose

When you are practicing, work on the weak parts of your game and ingrain your strengths. Get a picture of what you want to do. Visualize yourself making perfect strokes, whether it be putting, chipping, pitching or even full swing. As a player, you have to capture that “Kodak” moment, as we call it.

This means seeing a picture in your mind of yourself doing precisely whatever it is you’re trying to do. Once you can see that picture, your body can duplicate it. But if that picture is fuzzy, then there is no signal to send from the brain to the body.

CC image courtesy of Jonathan Camaya on Flickr

The next big key is to realize that you don’t always have to stand out on the range pounding golf balls. You can visualize and think about your swing, do mirror drills, ﬂashlight drills, racquet drills and many more inside without hitting golf balls. You can build a great golf stroke, and a great golf game, by doing lots of mirror work.

When you are loosening up before a round, start with the heaviest clubs in your bag, which are your wedges. Hit a few short shots with those, and then move up to a different club like an eight iron and hit a few with it, then move up to a 4 iron and hit a few shots. Then go to your hybrid or fairway woods and ﬁnally the driver. Then work your way back down again to wedges. The last club you should use is the club you hit on the ﬁrst tee.

Do these things, and you will become a better player. If you work hard on your short game, you will drop 3-7 shots per round even if your ball striking does not improve.